MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role-playing game. We’ll go over the very first MMORPG and learn about the biggest ones and those who influenced the genre as a whole. I myself spent a lot of time in MMOs, as I was always attracted and fascinated by this genre. Therefore, I decided to share my opinion with you on this topic and introduce you to the list of games released over the course of 30 years.
If you want to absorb all this information in a simple and relaxing way, you can follow the link to the video!
MUD (Multi User Dungeon). 1978
MUD or (Multi User Dungeon) is the name of the very first “MMORPG” with which it all began. MUD was D&D on the Internet with a text client. Where All actions were performed by entering certain commands. Moving, fighting, interacting with objects, collecting and communicating with players, all this was done without a mouse.
A little later, the game interface began to appear, and other little things that improved the project quite a lot. Then permanent servers arose, which still exist today. After some time, MUDs began to come out one after another, the market began to expand and progress could no longer be stopped, the genre began to develop.
Neverwinter Nights. 1991
In turn, the first full-fledged graphical MMORPG was Neverwinter Nights, and not to be confused with (Neverwinter Nights from BioWare!). The project was launched in 1991 and lived for six years. Of course, having found your fans and acquired an impressive online network of around 100 thousand people, which is the envy of current games.
Meridian 59. September 27, 1996
The next leap in the development of MMORPGs was Meridian 59. It is the first MMORPG on a 3D engine and one of the longest-running games of this genre. Its most important trump card was the three-dimensional client, which allows you to look through the eyes of the character at the virtual world. By the way, the project is still alive and is being played.
Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. April 1996
The beginning of the Korean MMORPG, Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, also known as Nexus TK or just Nexus. It was released in 1996 and became very popular in its homeland; since then, Koreans have taken this genre seriously.
Ultima Online. September 24, 1997
The starting point and bold point in the history of MMORPGs was Ultima Online, the queen of all MMOs, launched in September 1997 under the patronage of Richard Heriot, who created the term MMORPG itself. Ultima has been gaining its popularity by leaps and bounds. It was she who upended all conceivable and inconceivable standards of the genre and wrote her name in the book of history, in bold handwriting. A three-dimensional, isometric client with a third-person view, a huge world and amazing gameplay left all possible competitors behind. And to this day no one can compare with her in terms of freedom of action. Later she had a great influence on the world of the genre as a whole.
Lineage. January 16, 1998
In 1998, the Koreans, led by NCsoft, returned to the game. And they showed the world Lineage, which again became the most popular game in Korea, the number of subscribers of which, at a certain period of time, exceeded three million people, which allowed NCsoft to capture the native market for a long time. Despite its venerable age, in Korea itself the game still remains active and popular, more popular than Lineage 2, which we will soon move on to.
EverQuest. March 16, 1999
The next giant of the genre Slots-N-Play-Casino.uk was EverQuest, launched in March 1999. It was a successful project that held the championship for several years as the most popular MMORPG. A huge world was created in it, which consisted of more than 400 zones, there were group campaigns against monsters, battles against other players, role-playing, a lot of quests, and all this became widespread in EverQuest, where from 1000 to 3000 people were simultaneously present on one server. The system of selling virtual items for real money also gained enormous popularity, which greatly undermined the game economy, thereby increasing the incidence of fraud and scandals around the game.
Asheron’s Call. November 1999
The same year, following in the footsteps of Ultima Online and EverQuest, another MMORPG was released – Asheron’s Call. This game tried to absorb the experience of all previous projects, but wanted to remain as different as possible from everyone else. There are no banal elves and goblins in it, the variety of monsters is amazing, and each is original in its own way. One big storyline was created that drew gamers in, and constant events in the virtual world gave it life.
Final Fantasy XI. May 16, 2002
Let’s take a quick look at Japan. In 2002, the promising Final Fantasy XI launched. The developers hoped that crowds of fans of the series would pour into the virtual world, but the game’s mass popularity was limited only in its homeland.
Ragnarok Online. August 31, 2002
A few months later, another Asian project, Ragnarok Online, developed in South Korea, saw the light of day. The game has captured a huge number of gamers, with more than 20 million accounts in total. She attracted everyone with her unusual graphics, the whole world was in 3D, and your character was in 2D, with an anime-like rendering, which looks very unusual and beautiful. Also, Ragnarok Online soon reached Russia, it is still alive and localized.
RELEASE
Then the world of MMORPGs did not stand still and continued to develop, and since 2003 the period of ambassadors of the genre begins, and the story is divided into 2 parts before and after, in 2003 2 major projects were released at once, namely Eve Online and Lineage 2.
Eve Online. May 6, 2003
Eve Online is an ever-growing galaxy! The game, made in sci-fi style, had one more feature. She had and still has only one server on which gamers from all over the world play, and the number of concurrent users reaches more than 30 thousand, which is only about 50% of the possible volume. Hundreds of major corporations are fighting for dominance in the galaxy and, possibly, even the universe, seizing star systems, and waging a fierce struggle. But everyone remembers her for her crazy stories connected with real people.
Lineage 2. October 1, 2003
Lineage 2, in turn, was a classic with a PVP vibe, and was another successful Asian project. Now it is considered one of the best and most popular MMORPGs. However, popularity is, of course, a good thing, but Lineage 2 was overtaken by the same thing that happened to Ultima Online, just a huge number of illegal servers appeared. Due to the fact that character development was difficult, you could farm resources for months to sharpen your gear, but they would break and you had to do everything called and this case is not uncommon. Because of this, some people switched to pirate servers. But still, it remained in the hearts of many, and nowadays it has a considerable number of its fans who continue to play it.
World of Warcraft. November 23, 2004
On November 23, 2004, the entire situation in the MMORPG market was simply taken and turned upside down by a game from Blizzard, which quickly overtook and overtook absolutely all competitors without making any special efforts. The history of the World of Warcraft did its job, and the project did not need advertising. The game set records for the number of players and quickly surpassed the figure of 10 million active subscribers, which tells us about its unconditional success. WWII has become almost synonymous with the word MMORPG. And even those who had never played MMOs and were not interested in other WOW series knew what World of Warcraft was. This game is one of the best MMORPGs in terms of PvE content and lore, but it also has its drawbacks. Excellent ideas from the developers, a huge variety of monsters, bosses, events, as well as a very engaging social side are its main trump cards. And by the way, this is a project that will live for many more years until it simply becomes outdated.
Guild Wars. April 26, 2005
In 2005, the development of ArenaNet (a branch of NCsoft), Guild Wars, was born. Its peculiarity was that the user was offered to buy the original version of the game and no longer pay a penny for a subscription, but to purchase only periodically released additions. The main focus here was on cooperative play, PvP, clan wars and arena battles, otherwise it did not have enough stars from heaven.
Perfect World. July 2005
Also in 2005, the famous Chinese MMORPG Perfect World was released in Russia in 2008. This is a beautiful game, made according to all the standards of the genre. It’s quite easy to level up in it, and if you have the proper skill, it’s not at all demanding on donations. The setting is based on Chinese folk mythology, which is what attracted some people and Despite its age, the game is still very popular.
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. February 28, 2006
Soon a game with famous words in the name was launched – Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, a PVE-tuned game whose gameplay was completely based on the D&D system, for example in battle you had to roll a die that decides your fate. An attempt to return to the past, which attracted a fairly large mass of gamers, but at the same time greatly limited those who were unfamiliar and uninterested in this, that is, the majority of players.
LotRO, April 24, 2007
In 2007, the equally famous project LotRO was released, or Lord of the Rings Online PVE-oriented MMORPG. Which was developed based on the world of Tolkien – this is a game based on the book, it is this fact that greatly limits the possibilities for the development of the historical line. However, a considerable share of gamers came here precisely because of their love for the Lord of the Rings. The project is now alive and enjoying little popularity as a full-fledged MMORPG in the West, but in Russia it is experiencing its reincarnation.
Aion, November 2008
Another Korean major project was released in November 2008 and this is Aion, which embodied many years of experience of Korean developers and confidently started in its homeland, quickly gaining popularity there. A total of 25 servers were launched (7 of them were additional), At the time of open beta testing, more than 200,000 players were registered. Aion was also voted Korean Game of the Year in 2008. Aion was a classic MMORPG and it was not too progressive, but it attracted people not because of its originality and features that were nowhere to be found, but in the way it was all implemented, with what painstaking care every detail was worked out. Thanks to this, much of what we could see in many other games takes off to a whole new level, forcing us to take a fresh look at seemingly typical gameplay elements, be it flying on dragons, sieges of castles, and so on.
Conclusion
I told you about the most significant MMORPGs that influenced the development of the genre as a whole. I didn’t go through all the MMORPGs so that it wouldn’t drag on for a long time and chose such a period of time, because I think that all the projects that came out at that time laid the foundation for our genre. The current time for MMORPGs is very sad, decent games have stopped coming out, rendering everything possible to please the consumer and moving to mobile media, but the genre is not dead, there are worthy representatives that are still played, and new projects are appearing on the horizon that give hope. The MMO will live forever, but only time will tell whether it will return to its former glory.
Best comments
I don’t even know what to say, it’s just a list of released games.
I was hoping to see exactly how MMOs changed and which ones influenced what – as stated in the title “Development of the Genre”.
Moreover, the selection is completely sucked – LotRO is a WoW clone, which is not needed here, RF Online with its asymmetric faction battle and exchange would look much more interesting. =)
It’s quite easy to level up in it, and if you have the proper skill, it’s not at all demanding on donations.
It’s easy to download in Perfect World now, but when it came out, it was a living hell. It took years of grinding to reach the maximum level, so everyone who was too lazy used cheats. She is very demanding when it comes to donations; I have never seen a single mmo where donations would decide so much.
Thank you very much for your feedback! My first experience in writing material, I will be tempted and take into account everything said)